The present invention relates to a facsimile server system in which a computer terminal or facsimile server terminal which receives and stores facsimile data is interconnected via a network with another computer terminal or client terminal which accesses the facsimile data stored in the facsimile server through the network, and particularly to such a facsimile server system in which at the time when the received facsimile data is accessed for the first time by the client terminal, the facsimile server terminal transmits, as response data, data acknowledging receipt of the facsimile data to a source terminal having sent the same.
In a facsimile machine or a facsimile server terminal which comprises a computer terminal, such as a personal computer or workstation containing a board or adapter which offers a facsimile modem capability, it is known to display, on a display of the facsimile server terminal, or on a tiny liquid-crystal display panel of the facsimile machine, a result of the transmitting/receiving process which is obtained, for example, in the Group III facsimile communication procedure, and which indicates whether the result of the transmitting/receiving process was successful or not. This allows a user who sent the facsimile data, to recognize whether or not the facsimile data has been successfully sent to a destination facsimile machine or facsimile server terminal.
With this prior art system, it is convenient to be able to know whether the result of the communication was successful or unsuccessful. However, this is not always satisfactory because it is still impossible to recognize whether the facsimile data has actually been correctly accessed in hand by the target user at the destination end, and eventually a troublesome procedure, such as directly calling the target user, is necessary to confirm his or her safe receipt of the facsimile data.
In the meantime, some of the currently available conventional facsimile machines or facsimile server terminals can transmit facsimile data with additional information, such as their facsimile numbers (telephone numbers), set in a non-standardized field of information within a data frame, which is exchanged during the facsimile communication procedure. With this arrangement, a facsimile machine or facsimile server terminal is able to recognize the facsimile number of the sending-end facsimile machine (or facsimile server terminal) having sent the facsimile data, by referring to the additional data contained in that particular field of information.